In related art, there is a vehicle front structure including a lower grille for cooling a radiator etc. provided on the lower side of a front bumper as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-254116.
Also, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-254116 discloses the collision energy absorbing structure in which the lower grille arranged on the lower side of the front bumper has a low rigidity to protect a pedestrian and absorbs collision energy if a pedestrian collides with the front bumper.
Meanwhile, a vehicle front structure in recent years includes a safety plate provided at a front bumper to protect a pedestrian. The safety plate sweeps the legs of the pedestrian. Accordingly, if the pedestrian collides with the front bumper, below knee portions of the pedestrian are swept and the pedestrian is lifted on a hood without buckling of the front bumper. Thus, the impact of the collision is reduced.
In the following description, sweeping the below knee portions of the pedestrian and lifting the pedestrian on the hood is called safety plate function.
However, with the vehicle front structure including the lower grille of related art, since the lower grille has the low rigidity, the lower grille cannot provide the safety plate function.
In contrast, if the safety plate is provided at the vehicle front structure including the lower grille of related art, the number of parts is increased, thereby disturbing demand for reduction in the number of parts. Also, the increase in the number of parts results in an increase in the number of mounting steps. This is not preferable.